By One night removed from No. 5 UC Irvine beating No. 1 Long Beach State men’s volleyball in an improbable sweep and making them look human, LBSU returned the favor by sweeping UCI at the Bren Events Center.
In front of another sold-out arena, freshman setter Moni Nikolov and The Beach gave the crowd a show on their way to a statement victory in three sets, including a cinematic finish.
After looking rattled the prior night, The Beach came out of the gates with an evident sense of urgency, opening up an early 4-0 lead in the first set.
“I’m super proud of these guys, we were significantly more invested in every point tonight from the opening battle,” LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said.
UCI was resilient, staying composed and quickly evened things at 5-5. From that point, both teams engaged in back-and-forth action.
The Beach’s late-set execution was stellar on both sides of the ball and it was on display at the end of the first set.
A block from junior middle blocker Ben Braun set up match point for The Beach which was then converted thanks to a kill from redshirt junior Skyler Varga, sealing a 25-23 set one victory.
Eerily similar to Friday night’s match at the Walter Pyramid, things played out nearly identically in the second set, but with a reverse outcome.
LBSU built off the first set’s momentum to open up a sizable advantage, leading 18-11 at one point before a UCI timeout.
The Beach closed out the set and took down the Anteaters 25-19, setting up an opportunity to deliver a sweep of their own to their conference rivals.
Despite the Anteaters’ strongest counterstrike coming in the third set, The Beach came back from being down as much as four to even things at 23.
UCI had an opportunity to escape the third set and force a fourth, but instead, service errors hurt the Anteaters as they literally fell short and failed to get it over the net multiple times.
With the set tied at 27-27, a kill from freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev sent LBSU’s single-season ace record holder, Nikolov, to the service line for a chance to win it.
With 4,758 fans all on their feet holding their phones out and ready to erupt, Nikolov launched a dart just north of 70 miles per hour narrowly in bounds for the win.
Nikolov’s ace sent the fans donning black and gold into a frenzy, along with The Beach’s bench, who were now all on the floor celebrating.
“I know that when it matters most, that’s when somebody’s shining and somebody’s personality shows the most,” Nikolov said. “So I just trusted myself and I knew I was acing that.”
Among many great moments he has created in the season thus far, this one felt different as The Beach finally dealt with adversity and Nikolov’s cinematic “silencer” celebration, dubbed famously by LeBron James, silenced the 24 hours of questioning from the volleyball world to LBSU.
The spectacle didn’t end there as hundreds of young fans waited for Nikolov postgame for autographs and pictures.
“I was saying our best server is serving before their best server gets a chance, let’s end this thing,” Knipe said.
LBSU and its “Beatlemania [esque]” team, as described by Knipe, picks back up on the road again on Thursday with The Beach facing off against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos in the Thunderdome.
